I have tried laying the apps in a frequency-of-use order, which didn’t work for me because it was too subjective. I then tried to put as many as I could into conceptual folders…which I hated because I was constantly digging through similarly titled folders.

But, I think I’ve found an organizational structure that works for me…and it’s not what I would have guessed:

Color Coding.

Color Coded iPhone Apps

Yes, my iPhone looks like a rainbow. And it has made my life a lot easier. Here’s why:

I was finding that no matter what method I was trying to use to organize them, I was drawn to the apps based on their visual elements…which is what a large app icon is made to do. The icon’s dominant color became the driving force in my mind. If, however, the apps are all mixed up, my eyes would jump from one colored icon to the next, getting distracted along the way. For example, if I was looking for Evernote, my mind would know that I was looking for a dominantly green app. But Hulu, the phone app, and many others just look too much like Evernote. The result was that I would end up stopping at each green app along the way as I searched for the correct one. Organizing them all by color allows me to quickly jump to the green section, and then do a quick scan to find the correct green app.

So, I organize them by the colors of the rainbow for all the apps that I feel are moderately common, and then switch to folders for the much less common apps.

When my wife saw my phone, she decided that she needed to organize by color as well. But she’s doing it because it’s “pretty.”

Not quite what I was going for.

But, hey, what organization method do you use? Let us all know in the comments.

About Luke

My name is Luke, and I'm the Online Media Manager for a technology company, photographer, husband, and father. You can see a snapshot of some of my work at LukeCoburn.com. I cheer for the Red Sox and am completely in love with my wife and four little princesses.